Main menu

Main menu

Tragic News For Actress Shannen Doherty

Actress Shannen Doherty revealed that despite having a single mastectomy, the breast cancer she’s been battling for a year-and-a-half spread to her lymph nodes.

"I had breast cancer that spread to the lymph nodes, and from one of my surgeries we discovered that some of the cancer cells might have actually gone out of the lymph nodes," Doherty told Entertainment Tonight. "So for that reason, we are doing chemo, and then after chemo, I'll do radiation."

The former "Beverly Hills, 90210" star credited the doctor who performed the surgery for making sure she was comfortable with her body following the operation.

Popular Video

A police officer saw a young black couple drive by and pulled them over. What he did next left them stunned:

Popular Video

A police officer saw a young black couple drive by and pulled them over. What he did next left them stunned:

“He didn't want me to wake up with absolutely nothing,” she said. “It was very important to him that I didn't have that experience, and so, he put an expander in, so I have a tiny something there. It's cute and sometimes we fill it up and make it bigger, and sometimes we reduce it.”

Doherty opened up about her fears following the mastectomy, saying that she constantly questioned her health in the time that followed:

The unknown is always the scariest part. Is the chemo going to work? Is the radiation going to work? You know, am I going to have to go through this again, or am I going to get secondary cancer? Everything else is manageable. Pain is manageable, you know living without a breast is manageable, it's the worry of your future and how your future is going to affect the people that you love.

In the interview, Doherty spoke of what she went through during chemo -- particularly losing her hair.

“It was just shedding and it was driving me crazy,” she said.

“It was just clumps, and I was like, 'Just grab the kitchen scissors.' And my mom's like, 'Wait, wait, wait.' I'm just, like, 'Grab it,'" Doherty recalls. "She went and grabbed the kitchen scissors, and put it in a ponytail and she just chopped it off. And it was this cute little bob, but it wasn't enough, you know, it was falling out."

In response to a Daily Mail's story about Doherty's ET interview, one reader wrote in response: “I hope she and everyone else who has the misfortune to have this illness [cancer] always keeps fighting... Most if not all of us back all of you and hope you get better ASAP, [you're] not alone."